Elysia's Uncle
by NinthFeather
Summary: "I'm Elysia's Uncle Ed, and if you know what's good for you, you will behave like a perfect gentleman on your date tonight," the man said, as a dangerous smile formed on his face.


_A/N: The plotbunnies made me do it, I swear! Seriously, I'm not sure where this came from, but it was fun to write! It's set in the mangaverse, around when Elysia's fifteen. For plot purposes, Ed still has automail. FMA belongs to Arakawa-sensei, not me, not that that wasn't obvious, this being a fanfiction site and all._

**Elysia's Uncle**

Matt Winchester took a few deep breaths and tried desperately to keep his heart from pounding so hard that he felt like he was having a heart attack. He failed. He took another deep breath, this one long and a little shuddery, and knocked on the door.

He was going on a date with Elysia Hughes. Elysia Hughes! Half of the guys in the ninth grade would've killed someone to be in his place, and he knew it.

Still, it was just dinner at a restaurant. Nothing fancy, so no pressure, right?

Then, she opened the door. And all of the air went out of his lungs as surely as he'd been punched.

Those eyes! Green and large, they glowed in the afternoon light like precious stones. And her hair! It was pulled into twin pigtails, both a glossy shade of golden-brown. She wore a deep green dress with a neckline that…well, honestly, he would have preferred it to be lower. Elysia's body was already that of a full-grown woman. The green dress hugged her figure in all the right places, its skirt ending at her knees. She wore high heels, lime-green ones, but even with them, she was still a few inches than Matt, and he was of average height for a guy.

"Come in," she said, and her voice was like music. He really hoped he wasn't actually drooling.

"Is that him, Elysia?" a male voice asked.

That was odd. Elysia's dad was dead, Matt knew that—he'd seen her visiting his grave once or twice when he went to visit his grandmother's. And she was an only child. So who was the guy?

"Yeah," Elysia answered, not noticing Matt's confusion. "This is Matt."

A man stepped into the front hallway, and Matt stared.

The first thing he noticed was how short the guy was. Elysia practically towered over him! He wore a red coat over a black tank top and black leather pants that were tucked into combat boots. White gloves covered his hands, and the chain of a pocket-watch peeked out from his pants pocket. His blond bangs stuck up a little in the front, while the rest of his hair was in a braid.

The most striking part of this guy, though, was his eyes. If Elysia's were gemstones, his were molten gold. And at the moment, they were full of suspicion. Some sort of primal survival instinct had Matt stepping backwards.

"Elysia, why don't you go get your coat?" the man suggested. His tone was gentle, but he was still glaring holes in Matt with those strange eyes of his.

Elysia nodded and disappeared down the hallway.

"W-who are you?" Matt stuttered as the look in the man's eyes turned from suspicion to pure, uninhibited malice. He wondered if he still had time to run.

"I'm Elysia's Uncle Ed, and if you know what's good for you, you will behave like a perfect gentleman on your date tonight," the man said, as a dangerous smile formed on his face.

"If you don't…" he began, taking off his gloves. Matt gaped as the left one came off, revealing that Ed's left hand was automail. Matt started panicking. Most people who had automail had been involved in one of the wars, and everyone knew that wars messed with a person's mind….

The grin on Ed's face widened as he clapped his mismatched hands together, then pulled them apart. A flash of blue enveloped his automail as a plate on his forearm lengthened into a wickedly sharp blade.

_He's an alchemist!_ Matt thought wildly. _Crap, aren't most of them crazy too? The only one I've ever met is Armstrong, and that guy is like a walking poster for insanity! I am so dead…._

Ed lunged at Matt, blade-arm extended, stopping only millimeters from his throat. Matt thought his heart was going to stop.

"…there will be consequences," Ed finished, his maniacal grin twisting into an amused smirk as he removed his blade from Matt's throat. "You behave tonight, and I won't kill you. Equivalent exchange. Do we have a deal?"

He clapped again, and the hallway was filled with blue light as he returned his arm to its normal state. Almost lazily, he offered his flesh hand to Matt.

Matt shook his hand. That wasn't too hard. He was already shaking.

High heels clicked against the floorboards as Elysia ran up to the pair, green eyes alight.

"Ready, Matt?" she asked.

Matt nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

She grabbed his wrist and practically dragged him out the door, laughing happily all the way.

Matt tried to laugh, too, but it came out as more of a frightened croak.

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Ed stood in the front hallway of the Hughes household, feeling very happy with himself. He'd scared Matt badly enough that he'd think long and hard before he tried anything on Elysia. It should have been Hughes throwing knives past the kid's head, but obviously, that couldn't happen. Hughes had been like a father to him, and the least he could do for his dead friend was scare the heck out of his daughter's potential suitors in his place. Besides, that was the most fun he'd had in a while.

A warm feeling settled in his chest. He sat down in one of the chairs near the doorway and started reading the alchemy book Roy had lent him a few days back. If Matt and Elysia were even a few seconds late, he would be here to ask exactly why. It was his duty, as Elysia's "Uncle."

Suddenly, he had the oddest feeling that the picture of Hughes on the mantel was smiling at him.

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End file.
